Tag Archives: pet safety

If you use a space heater or light a fire, watch your pets closely. They are as attracted to the warmth as you are, so make sure their tails or paws do not come in contact with flames, heating coils, or hot surfaces that can cause severe burns. Also, if a pet knocks over a heating source, the entire house is in danger of catching on fire.

Chocolate and alcohol may seem like necessities during a New Year’s Eve party, but they’re actually quite dangerous for our pets. As always, if you suspect your pet has eaten any of the following foods, please note the amount ingested and contact us or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435.

Chocolate, Coffee, Caffeine These products all contain substances called methylxanthines, which are found in cacao seeds, the fruit of the plant used to make coffee and in the nuts of an extract used in some sodas. When ingested by pets, methylxanthines can cause vomiting and diarrhea, panting, excessive thirst and urination, hyperactivity, abnormal heart rhythm, tremors, seizures and even death. Note that darker chocolate is more dangerous than milk chocolate. White chocolate has the lowest level of methylxanthines, while baking chocolate contains the highest.

Well not really. High-fat foods, such as turkey skin, can be hazardous to your pet. Since the skin is hard to digest, it can lead to pancreatitis in dogs (symptoms are vomiting, extreme depression, reluctance to move and abdominal pain). It can also cause diarrhea in cats.

The skin isn’t good for you either (but that’s a conversation for a different day)!

Just don’t do it! It’s not just chocolate that you should be worried about. That bowl of candy is for trick-or-treaters, not for Scruffy and Fluffy. Chocolate in all forms,especially dark or baking chocolate, can be very dangerous for dogs and cats. Candies containing the artificial sweetener xylitol can also cause problems. Xylitol is a sugar substitute that is safe for humanes but it takes only a little of this toxin to send a dog into hypoglycemia-induced seizures and sometimes fatal liver failure. All dogs are susceptible, some more than others. Indeed, it has been calculated that as little as a gram of sweetener can kill a 10-pound dog.

We found these great tips at www.ASPCA.org and we wanted to share them with you. Have fun & be safe!
Ah, fall—there’s nothing like crisp, cool air, the first months of school and luscious foliage to get you excited for the changing seasons. Your pet, too, is probably welcoming the break from hot, sticky weather. But pet parents, beware—fall is also a time of lurking dangers for our furry friends. From household poisons to cold weather hazards, the season is a minefield! Here are some tips to keep your pet snug and healthy during the autumn months. •The use of rodenticides increases in the fall as rodents seek shelter from the cooler temperatures by attempting to move indoors. Rodenticides are highly toxic to pets—if ingested, the results could be fatal. If you must use these products, do so with extreme caution and put them in places inaccessible to your pets.•It’s back-to-school time, and those of you with young children know that means stocking up on fun items like glue sticks, pencils and magic markers. These items are considered “low toxicity” to pets, which means they’re unlikely to cause serious problems unless large amounts are ingested. However, since gastrointestinal upset and blockages certainly are possible, be sure your children keep their school supplies out of paw’s reach.•Training tip: If you and your pooch haven’t been active outdoors in a while because of the summer heat, do some remedial recall training. Dogs, like people, get rusty on their skills if they aren’t using them.•Fall and spring and are mushroom seasons. While 99% of mushrooms have little or no toxicity, the 1% that are highly toxic can cause life-threatening problems in pets. Unfortunately, most of the highly toxic mushrooms are difficult to distinguish from the nontoxic ones, so the best way to keep pets from ingesting poisonous mushrooms is to keep them away from areas where any mushrooms are growing. Contact your veterinarian or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center immediately if you witness your pet eating a wild mushroom.•In order to generate body heat, pets who exercise heavily outdoors, or who live outdoors, should be given more food during colder seasons. Make sure horses and other outdoor animals have access to clean, fresh water that is not frozen.•Autumn is the season when snakes who are preparing for hibernation may be particularly “grumpy,” increasing the possibility of severe bites to those unlucky pups who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Pet owners should know what kinds of venomous snakes may be in their environment—and where these snakes are most likely to be found—so they can keep pets out of those areas.•Many people choose fall as the time to change their car’s engine coolant. Ethylene glycol-based coolants are highly toxic, so spills should be cleaned up immediately. Consider switching to propylene glycol-based coolants—though they aren’t completely nontoxic, they are much less toxic than other engine coolants.